WISE, ISAAC MAYER (1819-190o), American-Jewish theologian, was born in Bohemia. From the moment of his arrival in America (1846) his influence made itself felt. In 1854 he was appointed rabbi at Cincinnati. Some of his actions, as his com piling of a nP,w prayer-book, roused considerable opposition. He was opposed to political Zionism, and in keeping with this denial of a Jewish nationality, he believed in national varieties of Juda ism, and strove to harmonize the synagogue with local circum stances and sympathies. After a campaign lasting 25 years he was instrumental in founding the Union of American-Hebrew congregations in Cincinnati in 1873, and as a corollary in 1875 the Hebrew Union college, of which he was president and which has trained a large number of the rabbis of America. Wise also organized various general assemblies of rabbis, and in 1889 established the Central Conference of American rabbis. He
was the first to introduce family pews in synagogues, and in many other ways "occidentalized" Jewish worship. He was not only a leader in liberal Judaism but also a scholar and the author of many works. He died in Cincinnati on March 26, 1900.